Trapping cold atoms near carbon nanotubes: thermal spin flips and Casimir-Polder potential

We investigate the possibility to trap ultracold atoms near the outside of a metallic carbon nanotube (CN) which we imagine to use as a miniaturized current-carrying wire. We calculate atomic spin flip lifetimes and compare the strength of the Casimir-Polder potential with the magnetic trapping potential. Our analysis indicates that the Casimir-Polder force is the dominant loss mechanism and we compute the minimum distance to the carbon nanotube at which an atom can be trapped.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Isotopic difference in the heteronuclear loss rate in a two-species surface trap

We have realized a two-species mirror-magneto-optical trap containing a mixture of $^{87}$Rb ($^{85}$Rb) and $^{133}$Cs atoms. Using this trap, we have measured the heteronuclear collisional loss rate $\beta_{Rb-Cs}'$ due to intra-species cold collisions. We find a distinct difference in the magnitude and intensity dependence of $\beta_{Rb-Cs}'$ for the two isotopes $^{87}$Rb and $^{85}$Rb which we attribute to the different ground-state hyperfine splitting energies of the two isotopes.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Quantitative study of quasi-one-dimensional Bose gas experiments via the stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii equation

The stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii equation is shown to be an excellent model for quasi-one-dimensional Bose gas experiments, accurately reproducing the in situ density profiles recently obtained in the experiments of Trebbia et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 250403 (2006)] and van Amerongen et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 090402 (2008)], and the density fluctuation data reported by Armijo et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 230402 (2010)]. To facilitate such agreement, we propose and implement a quasi-one-dimensional stochastic equation for the low-energy, axial modes, while atoms in excited transverse modes are treated as independent ideal Bose gases.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures; updated figures with experimental dat

Dynamically controlled toroidal and ring-shaped magnetic traps

We present traps with toroidal $(T^{2})$ and ring-shaped topologies, based on adiabatic potentials for radio-frequency dressed Zeeman states in a ring-shaped magnetic quadrupole field. Simple adjustment of the radio-frequency fields provides versatile possibilities for dynamical parameter tuning, topology change, and controlled potential perturbation. We show how to induce toroidal and poloidal rotations, and demonstrate the feasibility of preparing degenerate quantum gases with reduced dimensionality and periodic boundary conditions. The great level of dynamical and even state dependent control is useful for atom interferometry.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Paragraphs on gravity compensation and expected trap lifetimes adde

An Efficient Implementation of the Gauss-Newton Method Via Generalized Krylov Subspaces

The solution of nonlinear inverse problems is a challenging task in numerical analysis. In most cases, this kind of problems is solved by iterative procedures that, at each iteration, linearize the problem in a neighborhood of the currently available approximation of the solution. The linearized problem is then solved by a direct or iterative method. Among this class of solution methods, the Gauss-Newton method is one of the most popular ones. We propose an efficient implementation of this method for large-scale problems. Our implementation is based on projecting the nonlinear problem into a sequence of nested subspaces, referred to as Generalized Krylov Subspaces, whose dimension increases with the number of iterations, except for when restarts are carried out. When the computation of the Jacobian matrix is expensive, we combine our iterative method with secant (Broyden) updates to further reduce the computational cost. We show convergence of the proposed solution methods and provide a few numerical examples that illustrate their performance

Theoretical analysis of the implementation of a quantum phase gate with neutral atoms on atom chips

We present a detailed, realistic analysis of the implementation of a proposal for a quantum phase gate based on atomic vibrational states, specializing it to neutral rubidium atoms on atom chips. We show how to create a double--well potential with static currents on the atom chips, using for all relevant parameters values that are achieved with present technology. The potential barrier between the two wells can be modified by varying the currents in order to realize a quantum phase gate for qubit states encoded in the atomic external degree of freedom. The gate performance is analyzed through numerical simulations; the operation time is ~10 ms with a performance fidelity above 99.9%. For storage of the state between the operations the qubit state can be transferred efficiently via Raman transitions to two hyperfine states, where its decoherence is strongly inhibited. In addition we discuss the limits imposed by the proximity of the surface to the gate fidelity.Comment: 9 pages, 5 color figure

Extracting Atoms on Demand with Lasers

We propose a scheme that allows to coherently extract cold atoms from a reservoir in a deterministic way. The transfer is achieved by means of radiation pulses coupling two atomic states which are object to different trapping conditions. A particular realization is proposed, where one state has zero magnetic moment and is confined by a dipole trap, whereas the other state with non-vanishing magnetic moment is confined by a steep microtrap potential. We show that in this setup a predetermined number of atoms can be transferred from a reservoir, a Bose-Einstein condensate, into the collective quantum state of the steep trap with high efficiency in the parameter regime of present experiments.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure

Quantum Scattering in Quasi-1D Cylindrical Confinement

Finite size effects alter not only the energy levels of small systems, but can also lead to new effective interactions within these systems. Here the problem of low energy quantum scattering by a spherically symmetric short range potential in the presence of a general cylindrical confinement is investigated. A Green's function formalism is developed which accounts for the full 3D nature of the scattering potential by incorporating all phase-shifts and their couplings. This quasi-1D geometry gives rise to scattering resonances and weakly localized states, whose binding energies and wavefunctions can be systematically calculated. Possible applications include e.g. impurity scattering in ballistic quasi-1D quantum wires in mesoscopic systems and in atomic matter wave guides. In the particular case of parabolic confinement, the present formalism can also be applied to pair collision processes such as two-body interactions. Weakly bound pairs and quasi-molecules induced by the confinement and having zero or higher orbital angular momentum can be predicted, such as p- and d-wave pairings.Comment: Extended version of quant-ph/050319

Ultra-High-Resolution Optical Coherence Tomographic Findings in Commotio Retinae

Commotio retinae is a self-limited opacification of the retina secondary to direct blunt ocular trauma. Histologic studies of monkeys and humans relate this clinical observation to damaged photoreceptor outer segments and receptor cell bodies.[superscript 1 - 3] Reports using time-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) and spectral-domain OCT support the involvement of the photoreceptor layer, but these techniques lack the resolution necessary to confirm results of histologic analysis.[superscript 4 - 6] Prototype high-speed ultra–high-resolution OCT (hs-UHR-OCT) images demonstrate these anatomical changes in a patient with acute commotio retinae.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Contract Number RO1-EY11289-23)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Contract Number R01-EY13178-07)United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (Grant Number FA9550-07-1-0101)United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (Grant Number FA9550-07-1-0014

Multidirectional Subspace Expansion for One-Parameter and Multiparameter Tikhonov Regularization

Tikhonov regularization is a popular method to approximate solutions of linear discrete ill-posed problems when the observed or measured data is contaminated by noise. Multiparameter Tikhonov regularization may improve the quality of the computed approximate solutions. We propose a new iterative method for large-scale multiparameter Tikhonov regularization with general regularization operators based on a multidirectional subspace expansion. The multidirectional subspace expansion may be combined with subspace truncation to avoid excessive growth of the search space. Furthermore, we introduce a simple and effective parameter selection strategy based on the discrepancy principle and related to perturbation results